Objective: ―
by toothlessturtle21
Summary: Zane comes to in a body that he doesn't control, with no clue of how he came to be standing in a forest with no power over his own limbs. There's nothing quite like coming to terms with the fact that your goal is to kill your friends, and there's nothing you can do about it.


Zane blinked, but his eyelids didn't move.

...

What was going on?

He tried to recall any memory of the last day or so, and found there was a gap in the stream of data, blocked out by static and a fuzzy texture. He went to reach an arm up to open his wrist panel to view the various displays, but the limb didn't respond, sitting tensely at his side. Come to think of it, he wasn't breathing either. He didn't really need to, per se, but it seemed to put his human friends at ease and make it easier to see him as Zane, not just an android. The Ice Ninja tried to distract himself as well with this method more often than not.

At least his eyesight was functional, or so he thought, because having the visual input substituted for an illusion would most defiantly not be helpful. There was a wintry landscape in front of him, such as trees and frosted red berries and foliage of the like. He believed it was part of Birchwood Forest, but it's not like he could look around to check. It was then he noticed his hearing was turned off, resulting in dead silence in his head, not even the sound of his normally automatic breathing accompanying him.

Usually, the quiet was calming. It was a peaceful change from his hectic and chaotic life, more often than not only occurring because he had actively sought out the silence.

Not this time. All he wanted was a little breeze, a twig snapping, anything really.

A flash of red startled him, but no one on the outside would have ever known it. Kai was suddenly crouched five or so yards away, removing his mask in relief to reveal red dusted cheeks as he approached the android with a grin, words spoken but not heard.

**[OBJECTIVE: INCAPACITATE FIRE NINJA]**

Wait, what?

Zane panicked as his arms drew to his sides, pulling his shurikens out and whipping them forward, Kai barely dodging the stars. In between twists and turns, Zane could see his friend yelling something, but they fell on deaf ears as Zane moved forward.

Zane wanted to scream, to warn the Fire Ninja as he caught the weapons and posed to throw them again when his body was kicked from the side, sending him sprawling. The Ice Ninja felt tears burn involuntarily in his eyes, the blow definitely damaging some sensitive inner workings, but his body stood again, not bothering to inspect the wound. He was on his feet in an instant, a new objective blaring in his vision.

**[OBJECTIVE: INCAPACITATE FIRE AND EARTH NINJA] **

Zane wasn't sure whether to be more scared for himself or his friends, as he knew their abilities were nothing to play with. He watched in horror as one armed hand was thrust outwards and ice spikes tore through the semi-frozen ground and barely missed stabbing Cole through the leg, merely grazing it instead, only a surface scratch. Zane's body didn't give up, and tried again, this time striking more thigh, and Zane wanted to cry as he watched his friend's face contort in pain for a second, hands instinctively going to hold the wound as Kai dodged a spike thrown his way and rushed the Ice Ninja.

**[OBJECTIVE: TERMINATE EARTH NINJA]**

Zane caught a punch thrown by Kai, able to tell that the Fire Ninja was pleading with him to some degree, most likely scared of the damage done to their teammate. His body buried a fist into Kai's gut, moving with an efficiency Zane didn't normally possess. The Fire Ninja doubled over reflexively, recovering quickly as he blocked a strike with the shurikens.

In a split second, the stars were thrown at the ground, and Kai was blocked behind a wall of ice. Zane could imagine Kai's shrieks as he advanced on the Earth Ninja, ice spikes being launched left and right as Cole stumbled the best he could with only one fully functioning leg, terror in his eyes as he realized that Zane wasn't here to play nice. Zane, with one well placed spike, struck through the same leg once again, sending his teammate to the ground. The Ice Ninja, who now loomed over his friend, could tell he was mouthing 'please' as a robotic arm raised to strike, throwing star only milliseconds away from driving into Cole's chest or throat when a small jolt of electricity ran through him.

Zane spasmed briefly, shurikens dropped to the ground as he gasped in pain eternally.

**[Ô̸͚͇͠B̷̼̲͔̱̉̋̆͑J̶̠̦̽͑ͅĖ̸̹̒C̸̫͋T̶̟̒I̴͖̩̺͚͂͂V̸̛̳̱̳͑Ė̸͖̦̹̔̃:̷̢̥͊̊ ̷͙͕̫̤̅͋E̴͎͒̏̔̽L̶̙̑̌Ï̶̥̑̓̎M̴͎̟̺̉̍̈̚I̵͈̳͊̓̀ͅN̶̢̤̯̈̋Ả̴͔͈͖̲͑T̶̪̤̮̈́̈́Ẽ̸̪͓̬͖ ̶̻̣̥͂͋̽͋A̸͖͔͗̐L̶̨̻͙̽̓̉Ļ̵̛͇͉̄̽ͅ ̸͉̜̼̫̀́̈͝Ṉ̷̩̳̊͝Í̴͚̄̉̋N̵̼̜̻̭̾́͝J̵̨̘̩̆̅̆̈A̶̖̠̥͗̉̀͝]̴̭̭͊̍̽ ]**

Zane internally floundered like a stranded fish, aftershocks so terrible that it felt like his systems were on fire, but his body tried its damndest to regain whatever high ground it held, and the third and final player dropped into view.

Jay, nunchucks in hand, stood in front of him, gaze weary and nervous as he launched another bolt, sending one more blazing streak of lightning though his veins before his systems blacked out, body shocked into submission by his teammate's element.

* * *

Zane woke with a gasp, hands flying to his face. Jay stood nearby with his hand on his laptop, ready to hit the killcode if needed.

"You good?" The Lightning Ninja asked hopefully, finger straying a little as Zane admired the use of his hands again.

"Yes," He answered, never so glad to hear his own voice. He suddenly remembered all of the events last recorded, and his gaze whipped to the Lightning Ninja, fear written all over his face. "Is Cole-"

"Yeah, he's alright," Jay smiled weakly. "He's doing about as well as a guy can with two stab wounds to the leg."

The brunette regretted this wording, as Zane tore out of the room, stumbling over his creaky limbs as he found where the Earth Ninja was resting, finding him surrounded by Kai and Lloyd, all three of them lightly chatting.

"Cole, I.." Zane suddenly felt like an intruder as all three turned around, startled, and he caught sight of Cole's leg tightly wrapped in bandages.

"Hey, Zane, it's alright," The Earth Ninja soothed, reaching out to his friend, who latched onto his hand as if afraid to touch any other part of him. "It wasn't you. I know that."

"But I- I hurt you. Why would I ever..." Zane felt tears well up in his eyes, and Cole rested a gentle hand on top of the pale clasped ones.

"Your code was hacked, Zane. It wasn't you. Although you clearly remember what you did," The Earth Ninja's mouth quirked in pity, and Kai and Lloyd each moved to one of Zane's sides.

"Yeah man. We knew it wasn't you from the first time you tried to hit me," Kai smiled grimly, and Zane looked at him with sorrow etched into every line of his face.

"If anything, I should be apologizing to you. That blow I gave you to your side? Not my most restrained, I'll admit," Cole watched as Zane drew a deep breath, and slumped over, his posture breaking.

"How long have I been out for?"

"Only a few days. It took Jay a bit to figure out what was wrong and fix the pieces he fried," The Fire Ninja explained, but earned a glare from Cole and Lloyd as Zane shuddered at the memory of electricity crackling through his body.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Jay sounded from the doorway, and the other four looked over at him. "I had to get you offline, and you weren't going down without a fight."

"I don't blame you for any of that," Zane contended. "I just wish I had memory leading up to the incident. All I remember is waking up unable to control my own body. It was like someone had ripped the controls out from under me and I was forced to spectate as my body executed the commands given autonomously."

"Zane..." Cole exhaled softly with only a hint of pity in his voice. "I'm sorry. That's horrible."

"Wait, wait," Jay's bow furrowed, his gaze pensive. "What do you mean 'execute commands'?"

"I had objectives that would appear in bold text across my display. They were unsettling, to say the least."

"Like what?" Lloyd asked, curiosity creeping into his tone.

"When Cole was injured, the objective was to terminate him," Zane admitted quietly, almost as if it would come true if said too loud.

The Earth Ninja sat quietly, eyes set on his injured leg.

"So when Jay shocked you, you were going to cut my throat with your shurikens?"

"Yes, the goal in my mind was to kill you," Zane felt the tears creeping back, just the thought of watching his own hands take the life of one of his teammates enough to crumble his resolve, hands retracting from Cole's to wrap around himself, a shuddering breath wracking his body as his team reflected on what could have been, unsure who to blame for the events that occurred.

"Well," Kai exhaled through his nose, running a hand through his hair. "Cole's still here, and Zane isn't... hacked, I guess. So we're okay, right?"

"Yeah," Cole agreed shakily. "We'll be alright."

This turned out to be mostly true, Kai thought, as later in training Zane would cower whenever Jay used his lightning, and Cole couldn't help the shivers down his spine whenever the sunlight flashed off of Zane's shurikens.


End file.
